Movie Review: Kung Fu Panda

 

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my Movie Review.

This is my second special request of my Movie Review, this time its from from MarnicSteve92 in Discord, where he requested me to reviewing Kung Fu Panda.

At first, he was suggested me to see the recent release of Kung Fu Panda 4, but Im in hiatus of watching recent movies in cinema due to being burnt out and hurt from three strikes of three movies in negative results. I know its kinda unfair for changing request, but its always a personal decision we watching too much bad movies for clearing our minds and taking a break.

And lastly, that’s a nice pick that this is another one of those movies that I remember seeing it when I was young, and I thought it was awesome, funny and one of my favorite Dreamworks movie next to Shrek 1 and 2. So, this must be my lucky day to reuniting this movie for looking back, considering how Kung Fu Panda is considered Dreamworks fan favorite, as well as spawning franchise. So, it will be a worth of shot for my revisiting my childhood in today’s review.

“Kung Fu Panda” is a 2008 animated martial-arts comedy movie that was directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, produced by Melissa Cobb, and written by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger (two of them for screenplay), Jonathan Aibel, and Glenn Berger (the latter of two for story).

Back then, Dreamworks had their own video game company called “DreamWorks Interactive” when they released and anthropomorphic martial arts game called “T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger”, so in 2004, they’re publicly planned to make a movie about same concept, but in a comedy fashion. But from before, they’re originally planned to make a movie called “The Seal Lullaby”, which was intended to be their adaptation from the anthology stories of “The Jungle Book” that it’s called “The White Seal”. But that plan was ultimately scrapped for focusing on Kung Fu Panda. The idea of this movie came from the executive Michael Lachance, where he wanted it as spoof movie from which martial arts movies, but the co-director John Stevenson wasn’t so keen for the idea, so he changed to having a character-based wuxia comedy, which it will be a good idea to make it original than doing a cheap parody one which one of martial arts movies. Though they did mentioned they’re inspired from “Kung Fu Hustle”, but they also wanted to be clear to have not just comedy, but also having an authentic Chinese and kung fu feel on this movie from its presentation.

And when this movie came out in 2008, it is no stranger it was beloved by critics and audience for its action fight scenes, the humor, a fun casting and even great animation, so much so they got nominated from Academy Award and Golden Globe Award. And the box-office was in full on “Skadoosh” by earning $631.7M over $130M, making it the 3rd highest grossing film of the year 2008, and probably the top highest grossing animated film of the year 2008 above Madagascar 2 and Pixar’s WALL-E.

As for my experience, I never had a DVD of this movie when I was young, but I eventually watched it when I was activity house with kids and teens and I liked it. So it will be a worth of re-watching this movie thanks to purchasing this movie on DVD. Or watching it on Netflix (Yup, I subscribed Netflix as im writing this).

So, with all that said, will this movie is worth of be a Dragon Warrior, or is it really in badly placement to be a new fighter?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

While its another underdog tale that we all know, but this one is more like an unlikely hero being a chosen one that no one ever predicting.

The movie begins in a dream where it tells the future about the powerful protector called “Dragon Warrior” who’s said to be the main master with Furious Five in protection in Valley of Peace, it was a dream that we we’re in for the introduction to our main character, Po the panda, since he was dreaming to be a great Kung Fu fighter in Valley of Peace and befriend with Furious Five, but the downside is that it wasn’t because he’s a panda, its mainly due to working on restaurant noodle with Mr. Ping. But one day at Jade Palace, upon the tournament for Furious Five held by Master Shifu, but his Grand Master Oogway is not only yet to identify the Dragon Master, but he also warned about the prison break from Shifu’s former student Tai Lung, who’s desperately wants to claiming Dragon Scroll, so Shify has to call Zeng to keep the eyes on Tai Lung. But upon the tournament Po really wants to see the tournament so bad he came in too late, until he uses fireworks to breaking into the tournament and… In big surprise, Grand Master Oogway sees Po as a future Dragon Warrior as a savior in Valley of Peace, resulting a huge shock and confusion in both Master Shifu and Furious Five, but Oogway says, in reference from Bob Ross, “Its just a happy accident”. So its up to Po to get trained seriously to prove them to be a Dragon Warrior.

Like I said, this movie plays more about an unlikely hero being a chosen one to be a hero in the land, seeing how Po may not looking in good shape to become a Dragon Warrior to protect the land against Tai Lung, it wasn’t as easy how to feel our appearance if we want to be a great fighter with martial arts like Kung Fu, unless if its a motivation to earn a heart and have fun with as friendship, again, even if Po is gotta train seriously for either Shifu or Furious Five. But of course, it wasn’t just a heart or the motivation, the movie is also to have fun with it, cause I gotta say the movie is actually funny for the delivery and its slapstick, especially with fun reference of numerous martial arts films, whether its a martial arts movie reference or maybe their own delivery, the movie does have fun to give me a smile and a chuckle.

While its cliché for being another underdog tale, but it plays more like an unlikely underdog with a nice execution to have fun and even have a heart in this movie.

The Animation

The movie’s budget cost $631.7M and with a big budget like this movie, it looks pretty good for Dreamworks film.

For starter, the design of the location are look nicely and beautiful for a fictional land in China, with the town with markets, the palace and environment with a grassland hill or even a mountain with a Cherry Blossom tree, they look fantastic and beautifully done.

As for the designs and the effects, they’re also nicely done and even fun looking. The character designs are no stranger to be an anthropomorphic animals in their showing off either making dish in the kitchen or even martial arts, sure, they can be a big exaggerated and cartoony style for the character designs, but in fairness, they’re looking pretty good, fun, cute and even nicely fitting for how they look for their representation, especially with Furious Five are based on the martial arts fighting styles like mantis, monkey, snake and couple others. Of course, the effects are also beautifully done from the environment, the fighting and couple others for what they accomplished.

And as for the animation, while the presentation may look dated for a 2008 animated movie, but looking back now, it still well-done for the mix of some realistic movement and a cartoon fashion with some fast past and some squash and stretch, again, they can be exaggerated, but still, its pretty nice for the movements. Speaking of movements, lets not forget about the fight scenes, they’re no stranger for the highlight of this movie for their fighting styles, not just Furious Five for their animal based on a fighting style, but also to see a training and fighting in Kung Fu they are both fun and entertaining to see a fight scenes in a both comedic fashion and even reference of couple of past martial arts films, like the scene where Po and Master Shifu are in lunch at first, but they both fighting over one piece of dumpling is actually a nice and fun reference of Jackie Chan’s film called “The Fearless Hyena” where Chan’s protagonist is trying to eat one piece a food while being fought and teased by his master, pretty funny for its physical comedy in this scene. Here’s a quick fact, while Jackie Chan stared martial arts comedy film like “Drunken Master and “Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow”, “The Fearless Hyena” was Chan’s first film he ever directed.

Another fun part of the animation of this movie is the use of shadow puppetry style hand-drawn animation on both opening and the ending, its pretty nice they Dreamworks sorta brought back their hand-drawn since one their flopped film “The Seven Voyage of Sinbad”.

In fact, its a one heckuva film for the action and the design that, according to Dan Wagner, the head of Character Animation, was said, I quote;

“We've had some productions that were stressful, but this one ran very smoothly and DreamWorks is [sic] this production as a template on how they would like future productions to run. We lucked out, and there really was a sense of harmony on the animation. Even the production people. We all seemed like we were on the same page, believing in the film. That doesn't happen very often. I tell animators, you will be working on dumpers for most of your career, but every once in a while you get a gem. Kung Fu Panda was a gem.”

Yeah, I can’t blame you for a challenging aspect of this film, but still they did a hard-work for the animation and such, but they did a pretty good job.

The animation of this movie looks pretty good for the setting, the designs, the movements of the animation, and even the fight scenes, they’ve accomplished it.

The Characters

For a fun writing of the story, I think its no stranger that the characters in this movie are actually memorable, not just the writing, but also some familiar and fun voice acting.

Lets start off with Po (voiced by everyone’s favorite comedian/musician, Jack Black), he’s the unlikely underdog that he likes to following his dream to become the best Kung Fu fighter in China until he’s being chosen from Oogway’s future view in his mind, even if he’s too confident, too curious and probably clumsy for his dream upon entering Jade Palace that is until he’ll get over it to learn more that he’ll eventually becoming a Kung Fu hero. I think he’s such a fascinating and memorable main protagonist that he likes to following footsteps of his dream, because the doubt of his appearance, we can relate that we’re more like a poor size person becoming a hero, but eventually get over to be take it serious, be strong and be fun, especially with the latter, Jack Black is definitely did a fun work of his performance that make Po both memorable and funny.

Next up is Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman), a mentor in the movie for not only being a master to giving us Furious Five, but also going to training Po for the sake of Tai Lung’s threat, which is sadly the case for what happened at the latter that he adopted and trained Tai to be the next Dragon Warrior after Tai was left alone as an orphan, but his ego overflown that not only for being thrown out, but also being taken to the cell as Oogway was concerned from his future view, resulting not only trained five masters to giving us Furious Five, but also looking around for who’s going to be a new Dragon Warrior. I find him also nicely well-written character, he may have fun, but he’s pretty much taking martial arts seriously ever since what happened. At first, we thought he’s a strict and serious mentor that he takes Kung Fu training seriously at Po, but once we found out what happened, even though its pretty cliché, but its the heart it was uneasy if the student turning against mentor for the arrogance that hungered Tai that ended up banishing him and Shifu felt the pain that it wasn’t easy if Tai would’ve been, which of course, Po, despite being unlikely hero as I said, will encouraging him that he’ll be the new Dragon Warrior. Which is exactly that I like the chemistry went from rough start to eventually gotten better for training. But of course, Dustin Hoffman did a fun work of his role, and probably his perfect voice for playing an old mentor.

Then we have Furious Five themselves, these guys are like the sidekick in the movie for their showcase of their fighting style in their training and even their plot device for how to motivating Po without taking seriously, as well as explaining what happened to Master Shifu. Even though they may have one-dimensional role, but they have a fun performance of their voice acting.

There’s Tigress (voiced by Angelina Jolie), the leader of the group for being no-nonsense and tough-as-nails master of the group, but Jolie did a nice work of her role, Mantis (voiced by Seth Rogen, aka Donkey Kong in The Super Mario Bros Movie) who’s small, but he can fight in a bug size with dry-humor (Well, what do you expect for Seth Rogen, eh?), Viper (voiced by Lucy Liu) is a quick snake fighter, but yet good-nature as a sweet snake, Crane (voiced by David Cross) is a sarcastic and yet pragmatic of the group, and Monkey (voiced by my favorite comedic martial artist Jackie Chan) is an easy-going fella of the group, but course, when it was released in China, Chan provided his Chinese dub.

And last but not least, there’s Tai Lung (voiced by Ian McShane), the main villain and a betrayal student that he wants to be a Dragon Warrior, but being thrown out to the cell based on his inflatable ego that he wants to be “Better than anyone else”. I find him also a memorable villain, though its another cliché of student turned evil plot element, but its the delivery of him for how much he cares way too much to be a Dragon Warrior than anyone else, cause honestly, nobody wants to be a hero when they have inflatable ego like him, but he does have a one helluva abilities that despite going aggressive against one and other. And Ian did a fun work of his antagonistic role in a mix of arrogance, aggressive and probably funny too.

As for the rest, they’re no stranger to be there for a small plot details.

There’s Master Oogway (voiced by Randall Duk Kim) is an ancient mentor for the birth of Kung Fu and feel the future, Mr. Ping (voiced by James Hung) who’s a noodle restaurant owner and Po’s adoptive father, Zeng (voiced by Dan Fogler) is a timid messenger for checking Tai Lung’s prison and Vachir (voiced by the late Michael Clarke Duncan) is commander of the prison with his sense of hubris and boastful, and… Duncan was great and fun of his performance (Rest in Peace, Michael, you were amazing…).

While the character has their cliché and perhaps one-dimensional, but its the execution for the writing done pretty good and even fun voice acting with our familiar casts.

SPOILER ALERT for those who haven’t seen a movie, or if you don’t mind

The third and the final act are quite fun to see the final battle, but some part that probably didn’t make any sense.

After Oogway is sacrificed into Spirit Realm (Wow, that scene is heartfelt to see him go from blossom) and Po wanted to stay despite knowing he has a bad treatment from Master Shifu and Furious Five for not able to facing against Tai Lung, The Five had no choice by going on a defense against Tai Lung as they can. But after Shifu sees Po got himself a surprise from his physical feats and motivation of foods (mainly due to if Po’s upset, he wanna eat something), this gives Shifu an opportunity to training Po to learning Kung Fu, and it worked out well in the training, as well as Po’s innovation fighting style, which is a good news that Po is now ready to be a Dragon Warrior. But the bad news is only the beginning, after Tai Lung beat down Furious Five with nerve-strike technique (minus Crane that he had to carrying them for emergency to Shifu). After recovering the fives, Shifu is now going to giving a Dragon Scroll to Po, a reminder from before that if Po is worthy to be a Dragon Warrior, he’ll earning the scroll. Once Po got the scroll to reading it, the scroll message receives… Nothing! Its just… Blank for some reason (Yeah, the whole Dragon Scroll thing is pretty much overhype that once we get it, it feels like Po got ripped…), so Shifu has no choice but orders both Po and Furious Five to bring all the villagers to evacuating from the valley from Tai Lung’s threat, meaning Shifu is going to putting his life on the line to fighting against his former student. Meanwhile, Po has to not only bringing villagers out of valley for safety, but also reuniting Mr. Ping, sharing that despite he’s now knowing Kung Fu, but also said he’s pretty much of a wasted opportunity after received a blank scroll, until Mr. Ping shares about the secret ingredient soup, revealing that its… Also nothing, like no secret ingredient at all, instead its all things will become special in belief, resulting Po notices a similar connection between the secret ingredient and the scroll is all nothing but to believing that makes Po becoming special.

Back the palace, Tai Lung outnumbers his skills to brutally beating down Shifu in a verge of killing his former, but then Po arrives for the sake of Shifu and showing has a Dragon Scroll, confirming he’s the true Dragon Warrior, but Tai Lung find Po to be ridiculous that he thinks he’ll beat him easily, thus resulting a Final Battle between of two, the battle between the new Dragon Warrior and the former student turned evil from being twisted by the dark side of his ego. The final battle itself is actually both pretty good, creative and of course, funny, ranging from Po being a bouncy ball from obstacles and backfiring Tai (including squashing his head with his EXTRA T H I C C), using environments as weapon (Jackie Chan style) to having a one helluva impact of fighting in the village. But after Tai defeats Po (so we think), he takes scroll and… Found out its “no secret ingredient”, its all to be believing to becoming special as a true Dragon Warrior as Po said in recovery, the rage is overwhelming for Tai, as he wants to beat Po in second attempt, but Po, again, backfires him from his special techniques and easily beat him down. As Tai is about to taking Po down with nerve-strike, Po counters him with one the most deadliest technique that remembered move from his master, the Wuxi Finger Hold, after Tai begging him to question how he does that, Po drops his pinky finger, completely defeating Tai Lung in oblivion, sending him into Spirit Realm (Pretty impressive and creative with a unique technique to beat the villain in a martial arts film, eh? Well, that is unless they brought him back in recent Kung Fu Panda 4 for… Reasons, as im writing this...). And in the end, he was celebrated as the hero in the Valley of Peace for his completion fighting as a Dragon Warrior, until he goes to see Shifu if he’s going to die after a brutal fight, but he’s thankfully okay, its mainly to relaxing in peace to recovering the pain (Huh, at least the movie avoids the dead mentor cliché. Aw well), until Po likes to asking for hanging out with something to eat.

I gotta say, the final act, while the subplot about the scroll and the secret ingredient kinda ruined the third and final act, but its a pretty good one to see the epic battle and the satisfaction to beating Tai Lung down to peacefully saving both valley and our mentor.

And now for my final opinion of this film

Overall, Kung Fu Panda is both pretty good and fun animated martial arts film and probably my favorite next to Shrek 1 and 2, Puss in Boots The Last Wish and maybe even The Bad Guys (despite the flaws from the latter).

Despite the flaw from a subplot about the scroll, but movie has a fun writing with a good story, memorable characters, fun voice performances, and an outstanding animation for its presentation and the action fight scene, the latter of which are pretty good and fun too.

This is no stranger a “Must-Watch” that you gotta see it either yourself, or even friends or family. This movie is no stranger for if you’re a fan of Dreamworks, a fan of martial arts or maybe both (like me), its a fun movie to just… Have fun for animated martial arts films for being another underdog tale to see becoming a heroic Kung Fun fighter to bringing peace. I enjoyed this movie back then, and I still enjoy it to this day.

For my rating, im gonna giving this one a 9.5/10, along with earning the Trophy of Success.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.